Principal, Power Systems & Data Centers - Impact Consulting

Job Description: RMI is an independent, nonpartisan nonprofit working to transform global energy systems and align markets with a clean, resilient, and prosperous future. We partner with businesses, financial institutions, policymakers, and communities to accelerate solutions that unlock the energy transition at scale. Position Overview RMI is seeking a Principal, Power Systems & Data Centers to build and lead RMI’s cross-program strategy and advisory work focused on the rapidly growing data center sector. The growth of AI and digital infrastructure is creating significant challenges and opportunities across electricity systems, generation and transmission, buildings, industrial materials, water, backup power, site selection, permitting, finance, and community engagement. Addressing these issues requires expertise that spans traditional organizational and sector boundaries. RMI has deep capabilities across many of these areas, distributed across its Electricity, Buildings, Industries, Intelligence, Climate Finance, Third Derivative, US Program, and other sector and geography teams. The Principal will serve as an integrating leader across these capabilities — establishing RMI’s institutional theory of change for data centers, translating that strategy into differentiated market offerings, developing relationships and opportunities with priority external partners and clients, and leading complex cross-program engagements. The position will sit within RMI’s Impact Consulting - Delivery Excellence Team and work horizontally across the Institute. The successful candidate will combine meaningful data center industry expertise with strong strategic judgment, commercial orientation, consulting and delivery capabilities, and the ability to influence and mobilize teams across organizational boundaries. Application Deadline: Sunday, October 4th at 11:59pm U.S. Central Time Key Responsibilities Strategy & Thought Leadership Develop and maintain RMI’s institutional theory of change for data centers , defining how rapid digital infrastructure growth affects the energy transition and where RMI can have the greatest impact. Identify the most important system-level barriers, leverage points, and interventions needed to align data center growth with clean energy deployment, grid reliability, affordability, decarbonization, and community outcomes. Establish a clear view of where RMI should play based on its technical expertise, market influence, analytical capabilities, convening power, and external relationships. Integrate perspectives from Electricity, Buildings, Industries, Intelligence, Climate Finance, Third Derivative, Transportation, policy, and other relevant teams into a coherent RMI data center strategy. Identify priority stakeholders whose decisions RMI should seek to influence, including hyperscalers, colocation providers, developers, utilities, regulators, policymakers, investors, and communities. Define strategic and reputational guardrails for RMI’s data center work, including where RMI should — and should not — pursue commercial engagements. Monitor changing technology, market, policy, infrastructure, and investment conditions and adapt RMI’s strategy accordingly. Represent RMI as a senior thought leader on the intersection of data center growth, energy infrastructure, and the clean energy transition. Market Development & External Engagement Develop and execute RMI’s data center go-to-market strategy , translating the institutional theory of change into a focused set of commercial and partnership opportunities. Define priority client segments, buyers, pain points, and decisions where RMI has a differentiated right to win. Develop and market-test a portfolio of commercial offering hypotheses with external stakeholders and prospective clients. Identify and cultivate relationships with hyperscalers, colocation providers, developers, utilities, infrastructure investors, technology providers, and other priority stakeholders. Conduct senior-level market and client conversations to understand emerging needs and translate those needs into actionable opportunities for RMI. Partner closely with RMI’s Corporate Engagement team and program leaders to develop priority account strategies and a qualified pipeline of opportunities. Shape concept notes, proposals, scopes of work, staffing plans, delivery approaches, and commercial models. Apply disciplined go/no-go and right-to-win criteria to prospective engagements. Support senior client discussions and negotiations through contract execution. Potential commercial offering areas may include: Power availability, procurement, and grid integration Flexible load and demand-side solutions Site selection and energy infrastructure strategy Clean firm power and backup generation Transmission and interconnection constraints Data center energy and emissions strategy Water use and cooling Low-carbon cement, steel, and construction materials Integration of Carbon Dioxide Removals (CDR) on site or adjacent to data centers Sustainability standards and metric design for data centers Permitting, policy, and community considerations Data center financing and investment Cross-sector decarbonization strategies for hyperscalers and operators The Principal will not be expected to personally possess deep technical expertise in every area. A core requirement of the role is the ability to identify, mobilize, and integrate RMI’s subject-matter expertise into coherent strategies and client solutions. Program Leadership & Delivery Serve as the accountable engagement leader for large, strategically important data center projects spanning multiple RMI programs and capabilities. Translate complex and ambiguous client questions into structured workstreams, hypotheses, analytical approaches, and decision-oriented outputs. Assemble and lead multidisciplinary teams drawing on expertise from across RMI. Define clear roles, resp